Toyota will field two separate teams in the 2027 World Rally Championship: Toyota Racing and Gazoo Racing.
Reigning world champion Elfyn Evans, 2026 runner-up Oliver Solberg and third-in-the-championship Sami Pajari will all compete for Toyota Racing, steering a GR Celica Rally1 next season.
Gazoo Racing will be represented by the returning Ott Tänak and Takamoto Katsuta on a full-time basis, with Kalle Rovanperä in for around half the season. They’ll all drive a new GR Yaris Rally1.
But how did Toyota decide which driver to place in each team?
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told DirtFish: “We actually decided with the team inside, we didn’t ask the drivers.
“But how it went is that think about Ott Tänak: he won the championship in ’19 with the Yaris. Kalle Rovanperä is a two-time champion with the Yaris, so he’s easy to put in the Yaris team.
“Then you want to think about the young generation. We bring the Celica back, so you want to have the young generation in something new. So it’s easy to then have Oliver and Sami for Celica. And also the newest world champion, Elfyn, for the Celica.
“And then there’s Taka, and we decided that Taka is going with Yaris, with his friends [Tänak and Rovanperä].”
Toyota is very clear there is no A or B team, both are equal and the performance between both cars will be level too, as the only difference is the bodywork.
“Yeah, technically they are exactly the same,” Latvala explained. “But on some roads, probably in the fast roads, maybe the Celica aerodynamically is a bit better with the performance. But on the small roads, Yaris can be a bit better.
“So I think by the end of the season, it’s very equal. So there is not going to be an overall difference.”
The GR Yaris Rally1 name returns in 2027, but the car is the same as the GR Celica underneath - not this year's Yaris
Latvala emphasized that Toyota, and the WRC, “need two teams” as “we want to double the excitement for everybody, even for our drivers, our team, but also the fans of the rally business”.
But he admitted the decision was made under expectation that there’d be more full-season constructors in 2027.
“When we started to plan two teams, we expected that there will be more manufacturers for the 2027 season,” he said. “So the story was that we wanted to create more stories. There was no plan that we wanted to dominate.
“At the moment, we know for ’27 there is going to be many teams and many cars. Unfortunately, not many are committed to do the full championship. So that’s a little bit, let’s say, not so nice thing, but we have to think about it as a transfer year for ’28, when I believe then it will kick off really, really well.
“But at that time, for next year, for sure, we have five drivers who can fight for the title, so there should be some really thrilling stories coming up.”
In terms of service park structure, Toyota Racing and Gazoo Racing will have “two different liveries” and the drivers are expected to have differing overalls to match. But the mechanics and team personnel will work “as one unit” according to Latvala.
“Probably we will have two team principals as well, so then you can see some sort of fight going on inside the team,” he added.
“We’re still a little bit finalizing the structure, but I think all the six cars will be lined up, but maybe the first three can be Celica and the next three will be then Yaris.
“And now myself, I’ve been team principal, Juha Kankkunen has been deputy team principal, so now there’s a possibility that we both are there, but with different teams.
“It’s not completely decided yet, but it’s an opportunity.”
